A BUDDING psychologist hopes to return from the Youth Olympic Games with a medal – which she says would be an ideal birthday present.

Rachel Hannen jetted off on Tuesday for Innsbruck, Austria, where she will represent Team GB in curling at the tournament, which runs from January 13-22.

The Hamilton Grammar pupil, who turns 17 on January 27, comes from a long line of curlers and her mum Isobel is a former international.

The Team GB rink, which also features 2010 Winter Olympic skip Eve Muirhead’s brother Thomas, have been honing their skills since September last year and Rachel is confident of making her mark.

She said: “Success for us would be coming back with a medal.

“A gold one would be nice but just getting a medal would be great and I think we can do it.

“It would mean a lot to come back with a medal. I haven’t had a great season with my team, so winning a medal would make up for that a bit.

“It’s also my birthday when I come back so that would be nice. We come back on the Monday and my birthday is on the Friday, so that would be great!”

This trip isn’t the first to Austria for Rachel, who plays with East Kilbride and Hairmyres Curling Club, but will provide plenty of highlights.

She said: “I went to Austria on a skiing holiday a couple of years ago so I know what to expect.

“But I haven’t played in an international before and I’ll get to meet people from other countries, so I’m looking forward to that.

“Being in Team GB is great as well.”

Rachel discovered that she had been selected a bit later than planned due to a faulty phone, but was delighted and enjoys spending time with her team-mates.

She said: “We had to send off an application and then we went to a squad day and underwent drills and tests.

“We were then sent an e-mail and a letter of confirmation. I found out in September that I had been selected but my phone broke that day so I didn’t know until 9.30pm at night – I was delighted.

“It has been difficult to train with the actual team because we’ve all been so busy with our teams so we’ve been training on our own, but we’ve had a weekend where we went bowling and things like that, did some training and held a competition.

“We also met up last weekend before we went to Austria.”

Rachel added: “I am really excited about representing GB because it will be my first international event.

“It’s quite scary as well but I am looking forward to it. I don’t know what to expect from the other teams that we will be going up against though, because I haven’t played on the international circuit enough.”

Rachel has firm plans for the future and intends to take as much experience as possible from the tournament.

She said: “We are looking to win a medal but I also want to make sure I learn as much from the experience of meeting people from all over the world.

“Hopefully in the years to come I’d like to win the Scottish juniors and get to the World juniors, and hopefully win a medal at that as well.

“I’m in sixth year at school at the moment but I’ve applied for university to do psychology.

“I got into Glasgow to do geography but that’s my fourth choice.”

The British Olympic Association prepares and leads British athletes at the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games. It works in partnership with sport national governing bodies to enhance Olympic success and is responsible for championing the Olympic values. For more visit: www.olympics.org.uk